Paul Risner and his wingman, Keith
Hunsinger. The good Rev must be one of the best wingman ever
judging by Paul's six wins. Rev - your Germans got to shoot better!

Speaking of great wingmen ... who
else has one better than Justin Rice's better half, Ayree, who
actually clips his counters for him? And she can shoot, too!

Fighter ID charts line the walls of
the squadron's home field.

No event has more dice rollers thanks
to Paul Weintraub.

8th Air Force Leaner But Just as
Mean!

The time was three weeks after Black Thursday when the 8th
Air Force took 20% casualties on the raid over Schweinfurt. Emerging
from those dark days was veteran Paul Risner to become a six-time
B17 champion. Paul outscored Bill Beckman by one point!
How much is that? Bill failed to win it all by missing one ME-109
or having one more crew member return safely in any of his three
missions. Although the squadron put less planes in the air this
year for the first time since 2005, it was still the third largest
raid over Germany in our 21 years.

MISSION #1 WILHELMSHAVEN (Target: U-Boat Pens)
Philip White was awarded the DFC for landing his plane with an
engineer at the controls replacing the wounded cockpit crew.
Steve Sheddon's pilot suffered frostbite but remained in formation
to earn the Bonze Star.

MISSION #3 WESSEL (Target: Aircraft Industry)
Four pilots suffered Roger's fate. Jacob Hebner, Jim Miller,
Kaarin Engleman, and Justin Rice all had bombs explode in their
bomb bay. The downing of Justin's plane was especially telling
in that his other half, Ayree Rice, commanded the fighter that
shot him down. It's not known if couple's counseling was needed
afterwards, but Justin reports he won't forget to take out the
garbage next year.

The After Action Meeting is packed
again as the gift table beckons with the usual array of aerial
warfare books, models and assorted goodies to supplement plaque
prizes.

The dean of the WBC GMs with 21 straight
years at the helm of B17, Dave Terry, always puts on a
great show with lots of extra visuals and support from helpers
like Mark Yoshikawa.